


Queen and her Pussycats Went to Sea, The

by fileg



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: 3rd Age - The Kings, Canon - Enhances original, Characters - Good use of minor character(s), Poetry, Subjects - Animals, Subjects - Legends/Myth/History, Writing - Clear prose, Writing - Engaging style, Writing - Every word counts, Writing - Evocative, Writing - Good use of humor, Writing - Mythic/Poetic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 21:04:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3743459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fileg/pseuds/fileg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Queen Beruthiel and her cats, with apologies to Edward Lear.<br/>For the Mother Goose in Middle Earth challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Queen and her Pussycats Went to Sea, The

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

  
The Queen and her pussycats went to sea  
In a beautiful pea-green boat  
Which Tarannon Falastur built one day  
When he wanted to set her afloat.  
Flying past Umbar her vessel was seen  
By the light of a sickle moon  
But the Queen and her cats nevermore have been  
By the light of the day, by the depth of a dream  
Reported on native or foreign scene  
At daybreak or evening or noon;  
And Tarannon thought, in a satisfied way -  
That wasn’t a moment too soon, too soon,  
That wasn’t a moment too soon.  
For the Queen had a very unpleasant mein  
And it wasn’t a moment too soon.

 

The Queen was nefarious, lonely and sad  
And her black cats, three times three  
Were softer than shadows when they crept out  
To see what they wanted to see  
And all that they noticed and all that they heard  
The lies of a lover, an unguarded word  
They studied and twisted, surmised and inferred  
And into the ear of the Queen they were purred  
And the Queen would receive them with glee  
And all feared the shadows, bright eyed, softly furred  
But the Queen would receive them with glee.

 

Then into the places the dark could not go  
And under the light of the sun  
Came sapphire eyes and a coat white as snow  
with a way to discover what no one should know  
that even the shadows would shun.  
The innocent kitten that played on the grass  
caused the strongest in Gondor to curse when she passed  
for she was no time-honored daughter of Bast  
But a demon who tortured for fun.  
(And Tarannon saw she was tied to the mast  
when the days of her prowling were done)

 

So the Queen and her pussycats went to sea  
In a beautiful pea-green boat  
Which Tarannon Falastur built one day  
When he wanted to set her afloat.  
Flying past Umbar her vessel was seen  
By the light of a sickle moon  
But the Queen and her cats nevermore have been  
By the light of the day, by the depth of a dream  
Reported on native or foreign scene  
At daybreak or evening or noon  
And Tarannon thought, in a satisfied way  
That wasn’t a moment too soon, too soon,  
That wasn’t a moment too soon.  
For the Queen had a very unpleasant mein  
And it wasn’t a moment too soon.

 

 


End file.
